Bag and Tag
by Albion19
Summary: Eden's first Bag & Tag. Takes place after Eden arrived in New York. Gabden.
1. Chapter 1

I stare at the out of order elevator with reproach and then down at the heavy tank sitting by my feet. "Just my shitty luck...ok." Looking around the abandoned looking corridor and not seeing anyone I take a risk and leave the tank there but bring the little lizard with me. Climbing the stairs I bring him up to my face and talk as he sits in my palm. "And if I find that's it's gone when I get back down murder is going to be done, I don't care who..."

Rounding the corner I come to a stop when I see a man standing outside Chandra's door, preparing to knock. But as I watch he lowers his hand and runs it through his hair instead, clearly nervous. Coming forward I speak up. "If you're looking for the professor he's not in I'm afraid."

The man turns sharply and a guilty look flashes over his face before it settle into a shy smile. He's over six feet, towering over me - like _everyone_ does - and appears in his late twenties. His appearance takes me aback at first, so very formal and pristine looking. As I watch he fidgety flattens his finger combed hair neat again. From another age even.

_Man's stepped right from Smallville..._

"Oh, oh that's ok then. I wasn't really gonna..." He trails off and averts his eyes from mine, looking down at the lizard and his mouth quirks at the corners. "Iguana."

"He's cute right? There was a school having a sale and they were giving him away along with a tank." ..._Oh shit!_ I can feel my eyes growing wide and not knowing what else to do suddenly thrust the animal into his hands which he takes in surprise. "Oh shit! Sorry but can you just hold him for a minute? I left the tank down there." So saying I run and leave the bemused looking man behind me. But after a few moment he follows, hearing me swearing trying to get this fucking thing up the stairs by myself. This wasn't in the job contract, that's for sure! Well, not really...

"Do you want some help?"

"Oh god, yes please." I laugh, red faced and sweaty as he stares down at me a few steps up. "It weighs a ton and the taxi driver sped off before I could ask for his help." I haven't been in the city for that long but damn people here were hostile and will avoid confrontation at all costs. Just general city folk I guess.

The man smirks and dropping the lizard carefully into the tank grasps one end of it as I do the same. "Trust me he wouldn't have helped." He says, eyes on mine and I roll my eyes goodnaturedly at him. Seeing him up close he's very good looking but still surrounded by an air of oddness.

"Well he's an asshole then! Ok, one, two, three,_ lift_!" The load lightened we heft the tank slowly back to my floor before settling it down between my door and Chandra's. Shaking his mussed hair out of his glasses he smiles at me fully as I shake his hand on impulse. He's probably freeze if I went in for a hug. "Well _you're_ not an asshole, so thanks! I'm Eden."

"Gabriel Gray."

_Nice name, _I think as I slip a hand into a pocket of my jeans - I now own an extensive, fashionable and, most of all, expensive wardrobe thanks to the monthly Company paycheque - and move around Gabriel to unlock Chandra's door. When I turn back he's staring at me with confusion but also very carefully. _Trying to read me? Good luck_. "You know Dr Suresh?"

"Yeah, he's my neighbour. I live there." I jerk my head to the door opposite and he nods, backing away slightly. "This is my gift to him. I think he gets lonely when I'm not there to chew his ear off so I saw this and just had to get it. _And_ he says nice things about my cooking!" I say sarcastically and a silence stretches and so I smile at him friendly but something more guarded falls over his face. He looks down at his watch and then back at me apologetically.

"Eh, could you, if it's not to much bother, not mention that I was here? I just...it's complicated." He finishes with a troubled expression and I catch him clutch at his wrist watch tightly.

_Interesting, what are you hiding? _But hopefully keeping the interest off my face I nod lightly with a shrug of shoulders. "Sure, it's no problem. Thanks again for helping me, it would have killed me for sure." He snorts softly and leaves after a rather adorably awkward wave goodbye.

Looking down at the tank with a sigh I place my hands on my hips and prepare to get this thing in Chandra's apartment and set up before he arrives. As I'm bending down I spot the book resting beside his door and pick it up, straighting. _Activating Evolution_. I turn to call after Gabriel but he's long gone. I flip through it and find Chandra's address written on the fly cover. A small white card is face down so I turn it over to see a business card:

_Gray & Sons_

Timepiece Restore

Proprietor: Gabriel Gray.

There's an address and telephone number printed on the bottom. Flicking the card against my fingers I stare towards the stairs, my interest pique. This would certainly give me something to do. Maybe even my first "special" to report to Bennet...


	2. Chapter 2

He talks to his fish.

I had gone to Queens to return Chandra's book to him on one rainy day, after a meeting. It was like stepping into another world, or more appropriately another age. Everything was so strange, a place that feels so still but really completely filled with motion and noise. It's just all very subtle and drifts away once you're in there long enough with him. He takes your full attention, some how.

He hadn't heard the bell tinkle or saw me standing there so I had witnessed him talking to the goldfish - "Fish" - like it was his friend. I know now it really was his only source of uninhabited communication and maybe he liked that it didn't talk back. Either way it hit me profoundly, taking me back to my old life where my only lasting "friendships" were with the house hold cleaning appliances.

When I had finally cleared my throat he had turned sharply at seeing me, very embarrassed. Asking me how long I had been standing there. I think I would have teased him mercilessly at any other time, or if he was different but I couldn't. I just changed the subject and gave him the book. He looked relieved and held it to his chest.

"Don't worry, I didn't tell him that you had been there." Which was a white lie but I needed his trust. Chandra had turned my interest into a suspicion, even though he had told me - rather sharply - that Mr Gray was not special but there was something guarded about the professor's face. I could have got him to talk but didn't.

God it's tempting, so hard to resist sometimes.

Gabriel had nodded and sat back at his work bench, where he was working on a watch. He stared down at the pieces and started gently fiddling with them, looking so depressed. I moved closer and looked over his shoulder, asking what he was doing. He had sighed, all woe is me and explained that it was his very special timepiece, something he had laboured over for years but now -

"I just don't have the will anymore..." He had turned to me, looking into my eyes. "And if I do finish it then I haven't got anything else left."

"That's not true." I had whispered, hackles rising. I patted his arm in concern and talked in what I hoped was a light tone. "Does this have anything to do with Chandra? I was just wondering because the book..." I trailed off, an _almost_ artificial look of hope in my eyes._ Are you one of them_ I wanted to say but I didn't have to. Gabriel had pressed his lips together and I thought he was going to clam up but instead he had turned his chair closer to me and talked in a low rush.

"I - I thought I was. Chandra _told_ me that I was special, _he_ said it but then his tests..." He took a deep breath and I watched his gullet move up and down. Trying to stop a swell of emotion taking over him. "He tossed me aside when I wasn't any use to him, like I meant _nothing_. I had everything riding on that outcome, I was so sure this would be the moment my life would change for the better but it just made it worse. To have it and then..." He trailed off, his voice catching. He was always calm but I could feel the massive amounts of anger and despair he was pushing down at that moment.

I felt sorry for him, he seemed like such a lonely man, he just needed some hope and encouragement. This is my new life and as Bennet told me it was to do _better_.

My cover story to the uninitiated is that I work in a book store. That's what I was told but I never thought I would be _actually_ doing that. Bennet had scolded me when I was less then pleased to learn this, pointing out the huge rolls of paper that gets made and distributed at his place of "work". Rather proudly in fact. So Monday to Friday I'm behind the counter of Queen's Antique Book Store to welcome the odd customer. It's not all bad I guess, very flexible time and I am occupied for most of it...

Just as the paper factory is a front, so is this. "Out Back" is where the Company operates, this place just a small outpost in the city. A hidden office and two holding cells. A just in case. It's just me and another woman who runs the shop and out back. I think she's been here for years and she certainly treats the place like it was her business.

It makes me wonder what other places are buildings of deceit. The garage you walk past everyday has subterranean cells. The coffee shop on the corner holds secret laboratories and even more holding cells.

Gabriel's shop would be perfect for us, now that I think about it.

He was so happy when I told him where I worked, the cloak of malaise lifting from him. He said he has a large collection of books, really rare ones. So I invited him to come browse.

And I'm looking forward to it, I think I know what he might like...

"There's a smell about them, musty, old. I like it." He speaks from a kneeling position, looking at a shelf on Victorian cook books. He was at home here, his fingers relevantly trailing along the bindings and covers of the books, curiously inspecting the contents and enthusiastically explaining to me his findings. Didn't matter what, he was fascinated by everything.

He keeps looking at me. Before he couldn't for to long but now he keeps up the eye contact. We were building a rapport with each other. It was what I was assigned to do here but with the wrong person. Well I can't sit in the back of Chandra's cab everyday, so there's no harm in this. My little side project...

"This is a nice place, it's calming. Especially compared to where I last was."

"Oh, where?" He comes up to me slowly, still picking up the odd book that catches his eye.

"L.A. I lived there for a year or so and then moved here. Wanted something different, more settled." He nods, his face unreadable. He was like that at times, when he didn't want to talk anymore because it made him uncomfortable. But then he makes a humming noise.

"Sometimes I feel like the opposite, go somewhere full of commotion and be a part of it."

I nod "I agree, to a point. Sometimes it's good to get out and mingle but sometimes...some people lose their way." I lick me lips when his nonchalant face suddenly becomes sharp, eyes trying to pin mine. He comes forward and I don't move until he's right in front of me. He points at my chest.

"Candice?"

_Huh?_ "What?" I look down and see that I've still got the name tag on. Shit. My face heating I rip it off and move around to the counter to throw it in the bin. Staring at Gabriel hard and steady I tell him. "I go to A.A meetings once a week. Didn't even realise I still had it on."

He nods, his expression soft and non judging until he begins to look thoughtful. "Anonymous name..." He says and his lip curls and begins to really stare at me, uncannily so. Then he sighs and turns his back, looking at more shelves. "That would be nice, change of name. You did, right?"

"No, my mother always planned to call her daughter Eden -_ gurl you sound like a porn star_ - McCain." He spins around, grinning and I laugh. "I dunno, I just like the word, it's...special." His smile grows and he comes back to me, intense eyes flicking over my face. I open my mouth to speak but nothing comes out, my heart lurches at the sensation and my cheeks burn.

_Talk!_ "So you gonna buy anything or did you really just come here to keep me company?"

"Can't I do both?"

I raise my brows at him and laugh, a ho ho ho sound and he ducks his head down with a shy smile. "Of course you can! So...what you got for me?" He lifts his eyes to mine and fumbling brings a book out to lay in my hands. I stare down at it and choke. "Well, I don't know _what_ to think now..."

"Huh?" He looks down and his whole face - even his neck - goes beet red. He tries to rip the book out of my fingers but I keep a firm hold.

"Oh no, you had plenty of time to chose a book and you picked this. So you're taking it home!"

"I didn't even look at the title!" He whines, eyes aglow with mirth but still extremely red.

"Nope, you can't fool me. 'Sex and Sanity' is going home with you. I hope you keep it in a prized position. Like near your bed, I think that's fitting..." I'm running my mouth off, my stomach tight and jumpy. I can't stop grinning at him as he mumbles longsuffering about what I must think of him. He takes the now bagged book with a smile and runs his fingers through his hair.

"If you insist then I guess I can't say no."

"You betcha. Read it cover to cover and the next time we meet I want a thorough review of it." I smirk at him and his gets a wounded puppy look on his face.

"Now you're just being mean."

When he leaves I press the palms of my hands to my warm cheeks and roll my eyes. "Fuck, I'm hitting on him?" That won't be in the report for Bennet, that's for sure.


	3. Chapter 3

"I think I may have found one."

"You think?" Bennet says lightly on the other end of the line. I can hear a dog yapping.

Flicking through an old book I rest my elbow on the counter. "Yeah, but I'm not 100% sure. His name is Gabriel Gray and he was acquainted with Chandra. It seems they had a falling out, just before I got here. Chandra told me he thought Gabriel had an ability and he did some tests on him but couldn't find anything conclusive. He said Gabriel seemed to have an intuitive understanding of how things work." Bennet hums on the other end and I wait in silence until he speaks.

"You'll need some proof Eden. I understand that you're eager but sometimes -"

I interrupt before I mean to. "It's just I think this would mean a lot to him, he was pretty crushed when Chandra abandoned him." There's another silence, this time tense until it's broken by Bennet awwing at me.

"That's sweet, really, Eden McCain concerned for this guy's welfare. You've come a long way from thieving and arson."

Sarcastic son of a bitch. I glare at the row of old books before me and bite my tongue. I wonder if the ability works over the phone? "What do you want me to do?!" Again another silence greets me and I hold my breath.

"Alright, it wouldn't hurt to check. What I want you to do is make sure you have a case history of the subject: schools, work, family and friends. Check if he's got a record."

I snort. "Gabriel? I don't think so, he's harmless."

"Appearances can be deceiving and I certainly don't need to tell _you _that, do I?" I grit my teeth and keep silent, my skin hot. "You bring him to us, we do the test and if he poses no threat we set him back on his turf."

"But he won't remember any of it, right?" I can't help feeling regret because if they really do find something he'll never know.

"Yes. My partner will erase his memory of the event. Including you."

My stomach drops but I had expected as much. The Company was secretive and the members of it even more so. "...Ok, so when should I do this?"

"Friday, take a car to Hartsdale. The equipment for the capture will -"

"No!" I bark out, "I mean it's ok, I can handle him without any of that."

There's dead air until Bennet speaks again, his tone oddly gentle "...I know you can." Is there a touch of pride in his voice? But it's gone when he speaks again, all stoic calm. "But assistance will be there. How are your meetings going?" The question is so unexpected that I don't answer at first.

"F-fine, I guess."

"Well just take it one step at a time."

I smile and roll my eyes. "Twelve in my case."

He snorts, "see you soon Eden."

"Bye Bennet."

~

I have a week with Gabriel, time that will be forgotten only by him.

It should be spent doing something meaningful but I don't know what.

Just keep him company is all I can do.

His apartment is amazing and I can see why he likes spending time in the bookshop. Every wall has shelves and all were neatly filled with books, most of them antique. He even had books on his kitchen counter. They ranged from every genre and subject imaginable; he had a formidable intellect and thirst for knowledge.

"Have you read them all?" He nods at me, trailing close behind my back as I inspect his collection. "Damn Gabriel, you must read every spare minute."

He chuckles and begins straightening the books I had touched. "Something like that...I don't have much of a social life. Well, none actually." He smiles at me as I turn and I want to touch him, comfort him, this isolation painful to witness. He shrugs, looking at his books fondly. "I love reading but if I did have friends then, yeah, I guess it would be different..."

I press my hand against his chest, tilting my head to him. "I'm your friend, aren't I?"

He nods vigorously, going red. "Of course! I'm glad I met you." He says softly, those soft eyes becoming intense. It was strange, for such a seemingly nondescript man he could be magnetic. He's like an optical illusion, the closer you get the more you realise how intricate the picture is. I lower my head and he moves into the small kitchen, the tea ready. "Are you hungry? I usually just make for one but I might have enough..."

"Oh, that's ok. You should have said before because I feel so guilty when I cook. I make way to much and it ends up in the garbage more often then not." I look at the floor length mirror and even it looks old, very warn and faded in places. With all the tomes packed into the place it had a very austere air. The apartment belongs to someone much older then Gabriel but he does fit into it. My anachronistic man. I see his reflection slightly distorted coming up behind me and I turn with a smile, taking the cup.

"I have Mac & Cheese." He offers and steps back, eyes never leaving mine.

"Ahh, suicide food!" I say and immediately want to take it back when his face falls and he looks down. Desperate to change the subject I point behind him and he turns. "What's with the curtain?"

"Oh, my bedroom is behind it," he pulls the heavy black fabric aside and more light spills into the spacious room. He sleeps in a solitary, pristine looking bed and more books line the shelves above it. I raise my eyebrows at him and can't keep the smile off my face.

"You're so neat, I don't want to touch anything in case I make a mess now." I move towards his bed to look at more of the books and he laughs.

"It's fine, you can touch what you like."

"Yeah? You won't get all pissy?" I put the tea cup down and kneel on his mattress, creating creases in his meticulously smooth bed cover. I look at him over my shoulder and he's standing by the curtain, unreadable look on his face. I bounce slowly and he stares fiercely at me until I laugh. "I can tell you want to get me off..."

He comes forward, his mouth curling in an archaic smile and I feel my heart pound. He stops at the side of the bed and after a hesitating moment points to the shelf over his bed. "I read it for you."

I turn and see 'Sex and Sanity' there. I look at him, impressed and take the book down with a giggle. "Oh my god, I never expected you to! So tell me, was it racy?"

"Only if you find advice about post marital sex arousing. It's a book about Christian views on morality." He keeps his gaze averted as he talks, looking at the book in my hands instead. He had to be a handful of years older then me but it wouldn't surprise me if this is the first time he's ever mentioned sex to another woman. I put the book back and feeling a swell of daring brush my fingers through his hair. It's very soft and clean and he jerks back like expected. He stares at me with surprise as my fingers settle on his cheek.

"You can touch me, it's ok." He swallows and his eyes flick madly over my face until he lays his hand against my shoulder and rubs the end of my shoulder length hair between his fingers. He's very gentle, almost too restrained and I move closer to him, cupping his cheek. "You will be the last person to touch me like this..." He stares into my eyes with surprise, his chest rising and falling fast.

"What do you mean?"

"I've had my hair the same length and style since I was ten years old. This is my chance to start over but I want to appear changed to, something radically different to what I was."

He nods and his tentative fingers curl around my neck and move up into my hair. "I totally understand that, I've wanted to do that since I was a kid. You're like - like what I want to be. But I just don't have the guts." His reverent gaze turns to something more bitter and I make a noise of dissent, curling my own fingers to the nape of his neck.

"If you want to change something, _do it_. The only thing stopping you is yourself. And you'll always have my help." I promise, eyes locked to his. He goes completely still for a moment until his lips part and he moves down to me, warm breath blowing against my lips. He looks overwhelmed, his nostrils flaring and his eyes gleam wet before my sight is obscured and senses overtaken by the tactile feel of him.

There's something hidden about Gabriel, something pulsing underneath and I think I felt it then, when he kissed me. Something incredibly needy and overpowering and when it ended I thought for just a second he had taken my voice. Crazy but that's what it was like. His hands run over me and I shake in his hold until this oddly childish giggle escapes past my lips and he smiles, his face flushed.

I'm experienced, to much maybe but I didn't feel it then. Maybe because it was something truly new and not a pretense, not some inebriated fumble. I felt I wasn't in control and it was so liberating.

~

It's Spring in New York now and I ask Gabriel to show me the sights. He confesses that he hasn't really seen them that much himself, it all seems so ordinary to him because he's lived here his whole life. So we take a tour of his favourite places.

I tell him about my childhood, about my mother disappearing and then my father walking out. He tells me about his father leaving and his mother. The latter he finds very hard to discuss, didn't want to say anything bad about her but I felt he was withholding but I didn't push it. I tell him about my step mother, that she had died but I couldn't tell him the whole truth, I'm not ready for anyone to know yet.

I told him about L.A. About the drinking and drugs, the thieving. I left out the street walking, I didn't want to see the disappointment in his eyes.

He loves that I changed, he sees me as an exemplary example of everything he wants to be. He wants that so badly, to be special but he can't do it, not without having an ability. That pisses me off. We sit in a willow tree grove, leaves just budding, obscured from the public path.

"I don't agree. Having a power doesn't make you special and the moment you start thinking you are, that you're better then other people? That's when you need to take a step back and look at yourself. I did that. It doesn't define you."

"You've said that to me before, about defining. Ok, so it doesn't completely represent everything about a person but it does make you special. I don't understand why you don't see that." He says passionately, confusion in his eyes.

"Depends on what you deem as special, doesn't it?" I counter, sipping at my coffee. "You think having an ability makes you special. Ok so you can do things other people can't. Fly, whatever. In simple terms that's unique. But isn't the most pressing question of determining whether someone is special is through their actions?"

"People that do good with their power?"

"Yeah, it's not the fact that someone has a power it's what they decide to do with it. Some people have amazing, powerful abilities but because they're selfish they do bad things. Precisely because they live in that mind frame of thinking that they're special and that rules don't apply to them." I say and my voice shakes. It's so very personal but he has no idea.

He stares at me, head tilted until he shrugs very lightly. "I guess that's where we differ. If you have an ability you're not like any other human, you've been elevated to something higher. I can't see that as anything other then being special. Whether that person does good or bad doesn't alter that fact."

I narrow my eyes at his unconcerned tone and turn away slightly, trying to make out the park through the spindly branches. "I think you would say differently if you were on the receiving end of someone who thinks you're something to be toyed with..."

He snorts and I turn to him. "Me? They wouldn't even notice me in the first place! I'd be like an ant or something insignificant like that." He says and lines appear around his mouth and that tell-tell muscle twitches under his left eye. He looks somberly down at his lap so I turn his face to mine, hands cupping gently and swoop down to kiss him until he's groaning into my mouth and tugging me closer. Almost straddling him I break off and laugh, licking my swollen feeling lips.

"You're not insignificant and if anyone tried to hurt you I'd kick their ass."

He laughs with delight and his eyes make an up and down movement of my body as I stand, hand to hip.

"Really?" He says unconvinced, still smiling.

"Oh yeah, they'd have to shackle me..." I say demurely, laughing on the inside.

~

He comes with me to the hair dresser and sees me cry when the tresses start hitting the ground, the sound of the shears so sharp in my ear. I never cry, not infront of people but I couldn't help it. I look so strange and I touch my severely shortened hair uncontrollably. He holds me tight on the train as I stare at my reflection in the window.

"Oh fuck I look like a boy now, don't I? Just call me Den from now on..." He bursts out laughing and becomes out of breath and red faced, moving away slightly. I cross my arms over my chest, feeling jittery and glare at him

"Sorry, sorry. Jeez the things you come out with sometimes!" He snorts and takes my face in his hands and looks at me with a smile. "You're beautiful, it's a pixie cut so it suits you perfectly. And it will grow out in no time if you really don't like it. But I really do."

"Yeah?" I look into the window again and run my fingers along my scalp. It will take some getting used to. "It's a big change for me." He nods and smiles and bends down to kiss my neck. I wonder if he would do this if the carriage was occupied but we have it to ourselves. I turn in his embrace to twine my arms around his neck and I kiss him deeply and slow.

~  
It was time, I have to do it.

"Show me?"

He looks at me with confusion, "Show you what? There isn't anything, I told you." He was in a bad mood, I think he may seriously be suffering from depression but he was very good at pretending he was fine. He averts his eyes and sips at his tea cup. I'm seated on the counter, legs swinging and he's leaning against the office doorway, my shop empty like always. God, _my_ shop? Ha!

"You know how things work, without being taught. That's what you told me." I watch him as he moves and sits at the tiny table in the office, irritable. He definitely upset about something.

"So what!" He snaps suddenly and gets up from his seat and splashes the tea into the sink. "It's nothing, just a talent." He turns back, leaning back against the basin. "You need something fixed? That's me. _That's it_." He almost spits and I have to stop myself from sighing. He was wallowing. I move to him and take his hand in mine, looking up into his troubled face.

"You're feeling hurt and rejected, I get it. But what if Gabriel? You never know unless you try." It fazes me, those words coming out of my mouth. But he knows my feelings about being 'special.' Maybe I'm just being pessimistic, maybe it would be different for him. I can see how much this means to him, maybe more then it ever did to me. If he really does have an ability that is...

But he starts to look at me with consideration. Starting to hope again. I rub my thumb over his knuckles and he looks down at our hands.

"There are other people besides Chandra, Gabriel, people that really want to help. Will you come with me?" His eyes flick between mine and his lips part.

"Who are you?" I don't want to tell him, so frightened that his feelings will change when he learns what I can do. Maybe I don't have to, I don't identify that ability as being part of me anymore, I don't use it anymore.

I take his hand and smile, drawing him to me as I walk backwards. "I'll explain what I can. I just need you to trust me."

"I do!" He says, expression fierce and my stomach flips over. I lace my fingers through his and grasp him tighter.

"Then come with me."


	4. Chapter 4

"Time to go Gabriel." I stand up from my seat and move before him but he stays seated, looking at our half eaten sandwiches on the table. We are a few miles from Primatech Research and stopped to eat at this diner. He had been so excited in the car, asking me question after question that I really didn't have the answers to. The one I did, the one he really wanted to know, I couldn't tell.

_Do you have a power?_

I hadn't lied but I hadn't said yes, just told him loudly to drop it. He did, still with that happy, though muted, expression. But not now.

"I don't want to go." He looks up at me apologetically, eyes pleading. "I'm really sorry Eden but I just can't do it."

"What's wrong?" I sit down next to him, frowning. "You seemed so happy before..."

He nods, looking shifty. "I didn't want to disappoint you. I thought if I just pretended then maybe I'd convince myself," he shakes his head and looks deeply into my eyes, "but I don't. I can't take anymore rejection, I can't take that risk because if it's non conclusive then that will be it for me." He says, suddenly flicking to a dead eyed look that makes my skin crawl.

"No Gabriel!" I take his hand while the other cups his cheek. "You've got to stop thinking like this. You haven't disappointed me, you couldn't. Truthfully, I'm relieved."

"You are? Why?" He tightens his hand around mine but never to hard.

I bite my lip, debating what to tell him. "The truth is even if they did find something you - you wouldn't know. It's Company procedure to wipe the memory of the Bag and Tag." He's silent, face still until he begins to frown and his hand slips out of mine.

"You were going to do that to me?"

"No! I mean...sort of. I thought I had no choice in the matter Gabriel! There's things you don't know, about me..." I trail off and he still regards me carefully and hard so I lean further down, eyes never leaving his. "Remember I told you about my stepmother and the things she made me do?" He nods after a second, and I'm relieved to see compassion in his gaze. "I've been following orders almost my whole life. The only time I didn't was in LA and fucked up. I thought the Company had saved me, and in way they have but I'm still following someones orders. I'm not doing it anymore."

He nods and his hand touches mine again. I smile and lean forward to kiss him. "What made you change your mind?" I stare at him, face heating and then snort.

"What do you think?" His face breaks out into a grin and I laugh quietly. I get to my feet and look around, talking softly. "If I had brought you to them I would have been reassigned and given a partner."

"A partner? Who?" He says, straightening with flashing eyes. I wave my hand dismissively.

"I don't know. What I planned to do was tell you what your results were, even if you had no recollection of me." I don't know if that plan would work, if he would have believed me but I couldn't leave him alone with nothing to cling to. His face transformed, looking appalled.

"I'd forget you?!" I just nod and turn away, emotion swirling up in me. When I feel his fingers touching my cheek I look back and he's staring at me fiercely. "What do we do now?"

I open my mouth and then close it, overwhelmed. I never really thought he would do this, I never thought he would give up the chance to be what he classifies as important. Even if the outcome was uncertain. I don't know him as well as I thought. An unrestrained smile stretches my mouth when I want to look concerned. "Are you absolutely sure Gabriel? I won't hold it against you if you change your mind, but I've got to run. I don't think they'll let me go because I've chosen to quit."

It was his turn to snort. "You think I'll let you go now? This - this has never happened to me and I never conceived that it would." He bends down and cups my cheek, eyes extremely intense. "You're all mine now." I raise my brows at his assured tone while my stomach does a strange feeling flip. I nod and, straightening myself up, take his hand and lead us out if the diner but not towards the car.

"We can't take that, they'll just track it..." Squinting up the street I spot what I'm looking for and slip my hand out of his. Across the street is a pay phone. Perfect. "Gabriel, just wait here for a moment, there's something I need to take care of..."

He nods at me and shoves his hands in his pockets as the rain spatters down from above. I run across the street, my heart pounding. Bennet had told me that I would have help if I really needed it but maybe it was more. A spy being spied on. Grasping the ear pierce tightly in my fist I take a moment to calm down, take a breath. I don't really know the full extent of my ability, the little quirks that can be used or can't but I do know I'm powerful. I can stop the human heart with mere word, so I can handle _him_.

I dial the The Haitian's number and wait with my lips parted. I don't give him time to answer (if he even can)

_~Don't use your ability. You're not going to follow me or Gabriel. You're going to turn your car around and drive and drive until you feel you've become lost. You will not report this to anyone. You'll make people forget about me and Gabriel. Do you understand?"~_

"...Yes."

The line clicks dead and I watch with my breath caught in my throat as his car starts to move and then does a u turn in the deserted road and drives away. Once out of sight I put the receiver down and run back to Gabriel who stares at me with confusion.

"I did it! I think were safe for now." I say breathily and hug him for a moment before moving back. "Come on, the train station isn't far from here." He falls instep with me and watches me with a frowning bemusement.

"Where are we going?"

"I dunno, where do you want to go?" I grin at him and he runs his hand through his hair, smiling gently. I don't know if this will last, they no doubt will catch up with us one day but for now I'm doing what I want to do, under my own autonomy and unfettered will. And not alone, not anymore.

~Fin~


End file.
